The Stuttgart Open, also known by its sponsored name Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, is a women's tennis tournament held in Stuttgart, Germany (until 2005, in Filderstadt, a southern suburb of Stuttgart). Held since 1978, the tournament is the oldest women's indoor tournament in Europe. The event was part of the Tier II category from 1990 until 2008 and as of 2009 has been a Premier tournament on the WTA Tour.[1] The singles champion receives prize money and a Porsche sports car.[2] Until 2008 the tournament was played on hardcourt in autumn. Since 2009 it is played on clay court in spring, as a warm-up tournament to the French Open, making it the first indoor clay court event on the women's tour.[3]
| Porsche Tennis Grand Prix | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Tournament information | |
| Founded | 1978 |
| Editions | 46 (2024) |
| Location | Filderstadt (1978–2005) Stuttgart (2006–) Germany |
| Venue | Tennis Sporthalle Filderstadt (1978–2005) Porsche Arena (2006–) |
| Category | Tier II (1990-2008) Premier (2009-2019) WTA 500 (2021–) |
| Surface | Hard (Indoor) (1978-2008) Clay - indoors (2009-) |
| Draw | 28S / 16Q / 16D |
| Prize money | US$922,573 (2024) |
| Website | porsche-tennis.de |
| Current champions (2024) | |
| Singles |  Elena Rybakina |
| Doubles |  Chan Hao-ching  Veronika Kudermetova |
The players voted for the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix as their favourite Premier tournament in 2007, 2008, 2010–2012, 2014–2017.
The tournament has been won by many former number ones and Grand Slam champions. Martina Navratilova holds the record for most singles wins at the event, with six titles between 1982 and 1992, in addition to eight doubles titles. Tracy Austin and Martina Hingis both come second with four wins each in the singles event, with Austin winning four consecutive. This is followed by Lindsay Davenport and Maria Sharapova with three wins each.
Elena Rybakina is the current singles champion.
History
editThe tournament was founded by businessman Dieter Fischer who had organized a men's exhibition tournament[a] in Filderstadt in 1977 to open his tennis centre.[4] After failing to schedule a men's event in 1978 a license for a Tier II women's tournament was purchased for $100,000 and the first edition was held in October 1978, won by 15-year old Tracy Austin.[5] In March 1979 a men's tournament was held, won by Wojciech Fibak, but this event was discontinued as it required too much effort to organize two tournaments annually with a volunteer force. In 1992 a request for promotion to the Tier I category was rejected by the WTA on the grounds that the tournament's centre court, with a 3,000-seat capacity, was too small.[1] In 2002 Fischer sold the tournament licence to Porsche who had been the official sponsor since the first edition.[6]
Past finals
editSingles
editDoubles
editSee also
edit- Stuttgart Open – men's tournament
- List of tennis tournaments
Notes
edit- ^ The two-day event had a four-player field consisting of Mark Cox, Charlie Pasarell, Jeff Borowiak and Ray Moore.
References
edit- ^ a b Hans-Jürgen Pohmann (16 October 1995). "Filderstadt kämpft brav gegen den Einheitsbrei". Die Welt (in German).
- ^ "Caroline Wozniacki loses to Julia Goerges in Stuttgart". BBC News. 24 April 2011.
- ^ David Werner (14 April 2016). "Ein Traum wird Realität". Stuttgarter Zeitung (in German).
- ^ Bernd Dassel (31 October 1980). "Schmetterball in der Provinz". Die Zeit (in German).
- ^ Jörg Allmeroth (29 April 2017). "Die Vision des Dieter Fischer". Tennisnet.com (in German). Spox.
- ^ Simon David (23 April 2014). "Ein Turnier mit großer Geschichte". Stuttgarter Nachrichten (in German).